Chapter 33: Freedom

When Sally and I arrived at the hotel, Sever was wide awake and fighting vigorously against her bonds. Charlotte and Chloe were anxious. Neither of them was happy having Sever there but they understood that we couldn't dump her just anywhere.

I went over and picked her up. She fought against me, but I carried her over to the bed and dumped her on it with little fuss.

She squirmed and rolled over to face me. Her look alone told me more than enough to know what she would do if she got loose.

There were no qualms about leaning over her and clamping my hands to the sides of her head. She struggled but I was too strong.

It only took a second for my power to wash through her. The instant it did, her struggles ceased and fear rolled out from her.

As I made the change, another memory flashed. I was in a frozen tundra. There was a massive animal with tusks lying on the ground. Men with primitive spears were cheering over their hard fought victory and the meals the animal represented.

Just as fast as it started, the memory left my consciousness.

I untied Sever's gag and sat back. The girls watched from a safe distance as I asked, "What's your name?" Of course, I could have just found out by taking her memories, but I wanted to test her to see if I had removed Master PC's influence.

Charlotte had already found out from Cicely that Sever's real name was Meg Bowers. She had tried pulling her up before Sally and I had arrived, but, like the other Dragons, Meg was password protected.

Meg stared at me. "What did you do to me?"

Her fear felt quite genuine, but I wasn't going to allow that to sway what I said or did. "Answer me first."

She looked at the others and then said, "I'm Meg Bowers. I'm a member of House Zamora."

"I'm guessing you know who I am and my status?" I asked.

She nodded slowly, still avoiding looking at me. "You're a new House Leader, Lord Setton of House Nautikuus."

I asked, "Do you remember everything that's happened over the last thirty-six hours Meg?"

She glanced at me in puzzlement. "I do. I remember helping to take people hostage. The other Dragons and I contacted the House Leaders to let them know that if they didn't follow our instructions then the hostages, made up of members of their family, would suffer."

"We went out and ensured the House Leaders remained in their hotels." She looked up again but quickly bowed her head. "I remember Russ and Roy calling to tell us that you fought them and got away. Other Dragons went out to rein you in, but none of them seemed able to stop you. For some reason it made me mad and I struck out on my own to take you down, permanently if it became necessary."

I sat there waiting, not sure what exactly I was waiting for.

Meg shook her head as if trying to throw off the emotions she was feeling. "Lord Setton, I would have never attacked you, but I had this overwhelming urge, an impulse screaming in my head to get to you and stop you," she said further.

"Do you remember attacking the crowd in front of my store?" I asked.

She nodded. "I do. We weren't supposed to actually hurt anyone, just get you to respond by using your abilities." She looked up. "And you did."

Leaning in close, I made sure we had good eye contact. The emotions coming from Meg were that of regret and confusion. "The ones shooting did hit three people. One of which would have died if I hadn't saved her."

Her eyes widened. "We weren't supposed to hurt anyone."

"Did you call the news crews before the attack, sending more to the opening?"

She frowned at that and shook her head. "No."

"Ral, I don't think she's under the influence of the program anymore," Charlotte said softly.

I nodded. "I agree." Reaching behind Meg, I untied her bonds. She sat back rubbing her wrists and ankles.

"What do you mean? What program?" she asked looking from me to Charlotte.

"Someone took control of you and the other Dragons with Master PC," I explained.

Of course she didn't believe me, when we showed her the display. With access to her being secured, we couldn't do anything. With Chloe's assistance, however, we not only showed her the display, but also used it to make minor changes that were too wild not to be some other kind of trick.

When we were finished some of Meg's resolve had returned, but nothing like it had been when influenced. "I want to help. I have to make amends to you and the rest of the House Leaders for what I've done."

I nodded but said, "I can't let you."

"Why not?"

"Whoever used the program on you could do it again. At the worst possible moment you could go from ally to enemy," I answered.

Looking up at Charlotte, who was standing next to me, I asked, "Charlotte, any luck cracking the password for Meg?"

She went back to the table where her laptop was sitting. "I have an idea I want to try..."

After a moment of her hammering away at the keyboard she said, "There!" and hit the enter key dramatically. All of us held our collective breaths but nothing seemed to happen.

"What did you do?" I asked.

She smiled at me. "I just gave myself the working knowledge of how to bypass software security."

"Wouldn't knowing how to bypass Master PC passwords be enough?"

She shook her head. "I had tried that earlier, when you were on your way. The program won't allow a user to gain or grant knowledge pertaining to the program itself, but for software in general, there are no restrictions."

"Clever," I said nodding. "How long will it take?"

"I have to write up a couple of programs to do the core of the work. I'd say about two hours." She seemed quite confident in that answer.

"Get started then, because I want access to the rest of the Dragons. This will simplify matters immensely."

Turning back to Meg I said, "I hope you understand that until we get into your profile we can't guarantee that you won't go postal on us."

"Didn't you just remove those commands? Couldn't you do it again if you had to?" she asked.